Having gained Test status in 1992 Zimbabwe
was granted its first tour by an England side, which brought much
needed revenue from television rights. England were set back by losing
two of the warm-up matches and then a one-day international. They later lost
the other two ODIs, too, a further humilation coming when farmer Eddo Brandes
took a hat-trick and ended with figures of 5-28.

Zimbabwe
snatched a draw from the Bulawayo Test with the scores level. With England
needing 13 runs from the final over, Nick Knight hit a six but was thwarted
by Streak bowling wide of the stumps and was then run out off the last ball
going for the winning run. David Lloyd’s outburst that "We flippin’
murdered them" caused offence as Zimbabwe had been competitive
throughout the match.

In New Zealand England’s frustrations continued. New Zealand were 105-8 at lunch and facing
defeat on the last day of the opening Test at Auckland
but Danny Morrison held out for four hours to prevent England
winning. As the batting became more consistent and the bowling steadier,
England’s fortunes changed and the remaining two Tests were won decisively
before faltering again to share the one-day series. The tour was marked by
criticism of some aloof or rude off-field behaviour and Tufnell was accused
of smoking cannabis in a bar in Christchurch.
But the last two Tests had put England back on winning ways in
readiness for an Ashes series in the summer.

Wives and families were not allowed to accompany the players on
this tour, after it was decided that they had been a distraction in South Africa
the previous winter. Back in England Dominic Cork had been allowed to join
the team late in New
Zealand in order to sort out his marriage
difficulties.

The tour selection panel - David Graveney (chairman),
David Lloyd (coach) and Mike Atherton (captain) – met at Lord’s
and picked both the Test touring team and an ‘A’ team to Australia .

Selection

Not considered:

Tour Party Announced : September 1996

Not selected:

Withdrawn:Dominic Cork (for personal reasons) withdrew from the Zimbabwe section
of the tour.

Time between selection and departure from England

-days

(September - 25 November)

Travel

GatwickQHarare

JohannesburgQAuckland

The team had fitness training in Portugal before the tour.

Departure for Zimbabwe
was from London’s Gatwick
Airport on 25 November 1996,
arriving at Harare
Airport at 9 am next
morning.

For the second leg of the tour the team left Harare Airport
for Johannesburg
on 4 January. After a delay the team was able to fly from Johannesburg
to Perth, and on to Sydney
where there was another six hour delay before embarkataion to Auckland.The journey from Harare
to Auckland
took nearly 40 hours.

Cork did not
join the tour party until after the Zimbabwe
section, and met up with the team in New Zealand.

Time spent in Zimbabwe

39 days

(26
November -4 January)

Time spent in New Zealand

58 days

(6
January - 5 March)

On-tour
selection panel

Reinforcement

Ronnie
Irani had back problems so Craig White
was summoned to Zimbabwe
from the England
A tour as cover but Irani remained in the tour party and was soon playing
again.

C
White

Yo

27

RHBRFM

Fixtures/Results

(SCC)South Country Club

(HSC)Harare Sports Club.

a

ϯ Harare (SCC)

Country Districts(50
overs)

Drawn (rain)

b

ϯ Harare(HSC)

ZCU President’s XI(50
overs)

Lost 5 w

c

Harare (HSC)

Mashonaland

Lost 7 w

d

ϯ Bulawayo

Matabeleland(50 overs)

Won 59 r

e

Bulawayo

Matabeleland

Won 115 r

f

§ Bulawayo

Zimbabwe(1st ODI)

Lost 2 w

f

BULAWAYO

ZIMBABWEFirst Test

DRAWN

h

HARARE(HSC)

ZIMBABWESecond Test

DRAWN

i

§ Harare(HSC)

Zimbabwe(2nd ODI)

Lostscoring rate

j

§ Harare (HSC)

Zimbabwe(3rd ODI)

Lost 131 r

k

ϯ New Plymouth

New Zealand Academy

Drawn

l

Palmerston North

New Zealand
Select XI

Won inns 113

m

Hamilton

Northern Districts

Won 10 w

n

AUCKLAND

NEW ZEALANDFirst Test

DRAWN

o

Wanganui

New Zealand A

Lost 90 r

p

WELLINGTON

NEW ZEALANDSecond Test

WON inns 68

q

CHRISTCHURCH

NEW ZEALANDThird Test

WON 4 w

r

§ Christchurch

New Zealand
(1st ODI)

Won 4 w

s

§ Auckland

New Zealand
(2nd ODI)

Won 6 w

t

§ Napier

New Zealand
(3rd ODI)

Tied

u

§ Auckland

New Zealand
(4th ODI)

Lost 9 r

v

§ Wellington

New Zealand
(5th ODI)

Lost 28 r

ϯ not first-class

§one-day international

Time spent in Zimbabwe before First Test: 22 days

(26 November - 18
December)

Test
appearances on tour

5-Atherton,Crawley,Gough,Hussain,Knight,Stewart,Thorpe,Tufnell.

4-Croft,

3-Cork,Mullally

2-Caddick,White

1-Silverwood

0-Irani,Russell.

Match
appearances

TTest match

oone-day international

x other match

W wonL lostD drawnTtied

N no
resultA abandoned

Ccancelledu unknown result

Nasser Hussain played in every match.He was captain in the 2nd ODI against New Zealand

Z I M
B A B W E

N E
WZ E A L A N D

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

M A Atherton

x

x

x

x

x

o

T

T

o

o

x

x

x

T

x

T

T

o

o

o

o

A R Caddick

x

x

x

x

x

x

T

T

o

o

o

o

D G Cork

x

x

x

T

T

T

o

o

o

J P Crawley

x

x

x

x

o

T

T

o

o

x

x

x

T

x

T

T

o

o

o

R D B Croft

x

x

x

x

x

o

T

T

o

o

x

x

T

T

o

o

o

o

o

D Gough

x

x

x

x

o

T

T

o

o

x

x

T

T

T

o

o

o

o

o

R C Irani

x

x

x

x

o

o

o

x

x

o

o

o

N Hussain

x

x

x

x

x

o

T

T

o

o

x

x

x

T

x

T

T

o

o

o

o

o

N V Knight

x

x

x

x

x

o

T

T

o

o

x

x

x

T

x

T

T

o

o

o

o

A D Mullally

x

x

x

x

o

T

T

o

o

x

T

o

o

JRussell

x

x

x

x

o

C Silverwood

x

x

o

T

o

o

x

x

x

o

o

A J Stewart

x

x

x

x

o

T

T

o

o

x

x

T

T

T

o

o

o

o

o

G P Thorpe

x

x

x

x

x

o

T

T

x

x

x

T

T

T

o

o

o

o

o

P C Tufnell

x

x

x

T

T

x

T

x

T

T

o

C White

T

o

o

x

x

T

x

o

o

o

R E S U L T S

D

L

L

W

W

L

D

D

L

L

D

W

W

D

L

W

W

W

W

T

L

L

England’s six previous Test tour results

Highlights

•Darren Gough had match figures of 11 for
139 in the first-class match against Matabeleland

•Hussain (113) and Crawley (112) struck
centuries in the first Test at Harare, giving England a
lead of 30 runs

•Nick Knight (96) struck a six in the final
over when England
needed 13 in the last over but was run out

•Alec Stewart’s ninth Test century (101*) at
Harare was
his first while also playing as the wicket-keeper

•Stewart scored a second consecutive century
(173) at Auckland
with a stand of 182 with Atherton (83)

•Graham Thorpe also scoreda century at Auckland
(119) and then another (108) at Wellington

•Darren Gough took nine wickets (5-40 and
4-52) in the innings victory at Wellington

•The third Test at Christchurch saw Mike Atherton return to
form with 94*, carrying his bat, and 118

•Robert Croft (5-95) recorded his best
bowling figures for England
at Christchurch

Tour
Summary

F

W

L

D

T

Aban

Test Matches

5

2

0

3

0

-

Other first-class matches

5

3

2

0

0

-

†Minor matches

4

1

1

2

0

-

§ One-day internationals

8

2

5

0

1

-

All Matches

22

8

8

5

1

-

FFixturesWWonL LostD DrawnT TiedCanc CancelledAbanabandoned

Return
to England

AucklandQLondon

Departure 5 ? March 1997.

Time away from England

x
days

(25
November - March)

Finances

Accounts
of the Tour

“Out of the Rough: England
in Zimbabwe and New Zealand”by Peter Baxter, Jonathan Agnew and David Lloyd
(Andre Deutsch,1997)

Postscript

Zimbabwe needed
the income from television rights that the tour brought to help put the game
on a professional basis.

Jack Russell was a peripheral player throughout the winter tour,
marginalised by Alec Stewart being preferred behind the stumps and taking the
role of all-rounder, but Russell returned for one more tour a year later and
played the whole series against West Indies 1997-98.

Other
Test tours in 1996-97

Acknowledgements

To general reading of The Times newspaper digital archive
(Gale Group);Jamaica Gleanor
archive;National Library of Australia
Trove; Papers Past NZ.